Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
GAMBIER, Ohio  – Nate Lotze hit a new career milestone on his special day, highlighting Saturday's doubleheader with Allegheny College. Meanwhile, the Kenyon College baseball team dropped both of its games against the Gators by scores of 5-1 and 9-3. The pair of losses completed Allegheny's sweep of Kenyon, dropping the Lords to 1-11 in conference play.
Lotze entered Saturday's action tied with Matt Marcinczyk '06 in runs batted in tallied over the course of a career. After walking away from game one without an RBI, Lotze was stuck on 121 career ribbies heading into the seventh inning of game two. Kenyon had already scored one run by way of a two-base throwing error by center fielder Mike Pezzone, which placed Jono Chafe on third base. With one out, Lotze approached the plate and lofted a high fly ball into left field, deep enough to allow Chafe to tag up and score. Lotze earned RBI number 122 of his career, breaking the record that stood for seven years.
With his pair of hits in game one, he also tied Jake Calcei '09 for second-most career hits. He now has 35 base hits on the season and 185 as a Lord. The all-time Kenyon record is currently held by Marcinczyk with 192.
Allegheny (22-7, 10-2 NCAC) dropped the Lords in game two after posting six runs between the second and third innings. The Gators tagged Matt Delbridge (2-2) for two runs in the second and took advantage of two Lords' errors in the third to plate four more, all unearned. Adam Bronson and Shane Regel posted RBI doubles as part of the big inning.
Spencer Byers came in to relieve Delbridge, but things did not get easier for the sophomore. He surrendered nine hits and four runs, only one of those earned, in his 4.1 innings of work. Alex Pinkus and senior Ben Steiner served up scoreless innings of relief work out of the pen to close up the day.
The Lords struggled to string together enough hits to plate more than one run in Saturday's opener. Their only run came in the bottom of the third inning when Kyle Hardacker drove home Jake Dunn with a run-scoring single to left field and after Dunn swiped his eighth stolen base of the season.
The Gators broke away from the Lords with a three-run fourth inning. Davis cranked a triple to deep right field and then came around to score on a grounder to the left side. Joe Killian added another run-scoring base hit, leading to a 5-1 score. Josh Jacobvitz (2-3) took the loss after allowing those five runs on 11 hits through 3.2 innings of work. Tim Krahn mopped up the rest of the game and held the Gators without a hit the rest of the way.
Kenyon will now prepare for a pivotal four-game series at Hiram College on April 26 and 27. They will be in a fight for the fourth seed in the East Division of the NCAC. Game time is set for 12 p.m. on both days.
